DXD SI : Chapter 3 : The Cheat. (Patreon)

Bael Territory

–Magdaran Bael–

___xx___

He stared numbly at the ceiling, ignoring the woman who was hovering just out of the crib, looking at him with such intensity that he would have feared for his life, had he not known what her job was. Apparently, now they gave him round the clock care, with at least one person stationed at his crib at all times.

They made sure everything was taken care of. He was fed five times a day, though the food itself did not compare to his mother’s breastmilk in terms of energy, and clothed multiple times despite not soiling himself at all. Not to mention the picking up and moving about. The new place he was moved to had windows on all sides, with beautiful views all around. 

It was kinda weird, though. The plants, the lawn grass, the sky, and the sun were all the wrong colour. Now, in his previous room, he had a small window that was situated near the ceiling, and out of fear of being discovered, he had never really attempted the art of wall climbing, so he just knew that the sunlight coming into the room was a bit weird.

He just never expected the freaking sun to be purple! Sure, there was still a day and night cycle, but the sun was purple! He felt like that deserved to be repeated.

Still, even the funky sun, exotic views, and the mobility to watch the views did not help his mood whatsoever. All he could think of was the last moments of his mother before his energy burst out of his chest, knocking him out. Before he was knocked out, though, he saw something. Something that made his chest ache whenever he thought of it.

His power coming out in a rather explosive manner had destroyed everything around him, starting with the crib and the ground beneath him. He watched as he was dropped on the ground, as the energy consumed his mother’s body as well, beginning to destroy her. That was all he could see before he was knocked out by the feedback. It was very much likely that there wasn’t anything left of his birth mother.

Still, he didn’t forget her last words to him.

‘I’m sorry…..Magdaran’

He vowed to find out the meaning behind those words. Not now, though, he had a hunch that he was not exactly in the most safe environment. These people thought of him as a baby; let them continue that line of thinking. Once he was older, had cultivated his power, became uber powerful, only then could he get to the bottom of things. Right now, all he could do was keep a low profile, as well as much of a low profile someone could keep after manifesting a destructive power, and then try to gain as much strength as possible.

It was not hard to get over the complex emotions he felt about her death, especially since he had a lot of new stuff to focus on. He blamed the baby hardware he was running the adult software on. Neural plasticity must be off the charts for him.

___xx___

Which is why he was kind of grateful as he was assigned teachers for multiple subjects as soon as he could walk properly, and talk properly. That was at 3 years old.

A lot of stuff had been cleared up by then. Like the fact that he was in an anime world. And not just any anime world, he was in a fan service special anime world, just a couple of steps below outright porn. 

That alone would not have been a cause of concern, especially since he was born in one of the most prestigious nobles in the Underworld, and was also a Devil. The last part should have been concerning, but it was not. Even if he was born a Devil, he had, in his opinion, one of the most OP traits in the verse.

The Power of Destruction.

The concerning part about that was, who he was born to. He was born as the bastard son of the Clan Head. Normally, a good thing since that practically guaranteed protection and resources until he was strong enough to become one of the greatest existences in Devil society, but the problem lay in who he was born to.

It had been a week since he was brought under the care of this new management, and in that time, he had learned a lot. As it turns out, people gossip, regardless of their species. Caretakers who were supposed to take care of a baby who couldn’t understand them, even more so. That was how he knew that his father was married to one Misla Bael née Vapula, and his father was the current Bael Clan head.

Now, just like many others from his previous life, he had seen the anime in passing and had come out disappointed from it. One character that stuck with him from the anime was Sairaorg Bael, the supposedly defective son of the head of the Bael Clan, born to a woman who shared the name and clan with the current wife. The same one that had grown absurdly strong without the Power of Destruction. A hard-working shonen protagonist through and through, embodying Hard work and discipline

They were still without a child, though, so he supposed he came ahead of the guy who would end up becoming more of a shonen protagonist than the actual protagonist of the anime.

Knowing that he was going to be mired in that whole controversy, it only served to further increase his determination to get stronger. After all, as far as he could tell, the Devil society ran on might makes right, and the current rules were indeed enforced by the current mightiest devil. So, if he wanted to make sure he was insulated from the fallout, he had to be strong.

As simple as that.

That day, as he was taken out of his room for his next lecture on etiquette, no one noticed the determination in his eyes.

___xx__

[4 years later, Age 7]

“Master Magdaran, your teachers have arrived.” One of the maids called for him, as he sighed, and after taking one look at the small garden he had carved for himself, he resigned himself to yet another day full of lessons before he could be permitted to come back here.

“Coming!” Shouting, he flew back to his room, freshening up the old fashioned way instead of just using a spell like he was taught before going to his teachers. He liked some of them, not because they were nice but because all of them were experts, and some of them did not strut around carrying that overinflated ego on their sleeves.

Even though the lessons were a chore, feeling his demonic energy and his control over his PoD increase day by day was enough motivation for him to continue doing that. And once that ran out, he came here, to this garden. He didn’t know if it was something the ROB gave him or something he always wanted to do but never got the chance to, but in this life, he loved gardening.

Plants. Trees. Flora of all kinds. It was as if he could speak to them. It was funny. His power was designed to destroy everything in sight and yet, his mind continued to drift towards this garden, thinking of more trees and plants he could grow here. 

It never even occurred to him that he could go beyond having a garden full of mundane(for the underworld anyway) plants.

___xx__

[ Age 11]

He sighed, looking at the plant currently encased within a ball of his PoD. By all means, something like that should have killed the plant but instead, its yellowed, dying leaves were regaining their lost vigour as if time itself was being reversed. The surge of water and nutrients taken from the ground told him something else.

It had happened by accident. All this time, he thought himself to possess the vanilla flavour of the Power of Destruction. Just point, shoot, and watch it be erased. That was what the PoD was, it was common knowledge.

As it turns out, he, on the other hand, had a different flavour of PoD. Sure, he could do everything that the normal PoD could do, but his power seems to have skipped a couple of steps, to reach the stage where he should have become a God or something.

The ability to affect concepts.

Something that would have him placed on multiple kill lists instantly, as that was something that was thought to be exclusive to the God of Destruction, DxD. Well, Ophis and Great Red could do that as well, but they, being who they were in terms of power scaling, were ignored by him.

Sure, he did not have the juice to do it all the time or use it offensively on devils who were stronger or even the same power level as him, but he could use it to his advantage. And more importantly, he used that to combine his two gifts.

Yes, he was going to call his obsession with his garden a gift. That conceptual aspect of his power was why he had just destroyed the concept of demonic energy damage from the plant’s body. Demonic Energy was nasty like that, killing off most plant life if it did not fight back or was too weak to do so.

His mind had already conjured up ways to use this to his advantage, to speed up his progress. Already, they were calling him a once in a generation prodigy, though the compliments had reduced in intensity lately, likely because of the birth of the real Heir of the Clan.

Yes, Sairaorg was born, which meant he probably had very little time until the world went to shit. Yes, Sairaorg was already an adult and pretty strong when stuff went down in the later seasons of the anime, with threats from both outside and within the Underworld attacking anything that shone too brightly, but that was not much time.

Especially not in Devil timeline. A couple of decades might as well have been a year or less, since no Devil had died of aging until now and likely would not for thousands more. It gave them time, but also bred complacency.

Well, it was good that he knew the shitstorm that was handed their way. Conveniently, this new aspect to his powers just shortened his timeline to become a Satan Class devil from multiple decades to maybe a single decade.

As the sun went down, he looked at the slight glow coming from the trunk of the Mother Tree. The tree he’d cultivated in the name of his mother, whom he never knew. The tree was just big, and strong, with a vast root network. Beyond the slight bioluminescence, the tree was normal, but it was the reason he was capable of all his experiments. The root network and the tree’s ability to filter the demonic energy effectively meant he could expand his garden. He planend on upgrading the tree as well, but later, when he had sufficient authority and know how to defend and hide this place.

He had gotten this Garden, a medium sized space, as a concession from his father, after showing the results of his training. The man was clearly pleased at his progress, but that meant nothing to him.

Looking down at the planet, he saw the plant was void of any demonic energy poisoning. He then dispelled the sphere of PoD, watching as the demonic energy held at bay by his power rushed in to fill the void. The plant and its leaves began darkening in real time, as the energy began wreaking havoc once more.

Only this time, the rate of damage was slower than before, not by much, but measurable.

He smiled, seeing his experiments work.

Next step? The same for his muscles.

He finally had his Cheat.

A/N - Time skip next year.